The results are in....

** Dallas White Rock Marathon **

* Finished in 272nd place out of 5,773
* Finished ahead of 95.3 % of other finishers
* Finished ahead of 91% of other males
* Males (31 - 34 yrs old) I finished ahead of 92%
* Finished ahead of 99% of females
* Between miles 10 and 13 I passed 24 people
* Between miles 10 and 13 I got passed by 9 people
* Average per mile pace: 7:44
* Average Speed: 7.8 MPH
* My time was 1:41:25
* Average time was 2:23:06

As I stated previously my goal time was 1:39:59 but (after looking at my mile per mile results) I started off really slow because I couldn't separate from the pack. They anticipated around 17,000 total entrants that included half marathon, full marathon, wheelchair, marathon relay, etc., so it was VERY packed and it was next to impossible to get any elbow room for about the first 3 miles ... after that my time dropped by about 1 minute per mile but it was too hard for me to make up the couple minutes I lost in the first few miles. On top of that there were "record head winds", (and they weren't joking!... nothing like running uphill AND into the wind) and it was unusually hot (66 degrees at the start) compared to around 40 degrees at the start last year (colder is always better for a long run) - so there was certainly some over-heating issues. On a possibly related note one gal (healthy, experienced runner / 29 year old female) collapsed and died at mile 21 of her marathon run, which is really sad. They did say given the temperature they were adding some additional medical teams but I think in the end they said the response time to this particular runner was especially slow.

I had a small piece of paper in my pocket where I wrote some of my goals like my goal time, goal pace and some things to remember like: "Don't stop running" and "you can rest at the finish" and lastly "Bite off more than you can chew - and then fucking chew it" and I had to pull out this piece of paper at about mile 7 when I just really wanted to walk and rest for a mile. I do think on a couple of occasions it would have been medically smarter had I taken a rest, walked for a while, etc., because I was on the verge of puking after the run, and couldn't walk straight, very dizzy, etc., It was pretty touch-and-go at the finish - but in the end, I left it all out there, I didn't stop running despite that constant and persistent mental-argument that I was having with myself during the course of the run.